Field
The present disclosure relates to a method and system for processing media data and to a computer program product for causing a computerized device to perform the method.
Description of the Related Technology
A multi-service user has services enabling them to make calls from, and receive calls at, multiple telephones. One of the telephones may, for example, be a landline telephone and the other telephone may be a mobile telephone, or vice versa. Alternatively, one of the telephones may be a landline telephone such as a home telephone and the other telephone may also be a landline telephone, but for an office or other fixed location remote from the multi-service user's office. Further alternatively, both telephones may be mobile telephones with telephony services operated by different service providers. As a further alternative, one or the other or both of the telephones may be telephones associated with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) services. The telephony services for the telephones may be of different telephony service types (either provided by the same or different service providers) or may be of the same telephony service type operated by different telephony service providers.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art telecommunications system 1. The telecommunications system 1 includes a telephone 100 (denoted telephone A) which is connected to a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 102. The PSTN 102 is connected to a first service provider network 104.
The first service provider network 104 includes a local telephone exchange switch 108 which serves a telephone 110 (denoted telephone B).
The telecommunications system 1 also includes a second service provider network 112 to which a telephone 114 (telephone C) is connected. The second service provider network 112 interfaces with the PSTN 102 via one or more local telephone exchange switches and/or gateways 116, the operation of which is known to one skilled in the art and will not be described in detail herein.
FIG. 2 is a flow diagram according to the prior art which illustrates the steps involved in a user of telephone A (the calling party) calling a multi-service user, associated with telephones B and C, at telephone B in the first service provider network 104, the multi-service user not being available at telephone B, and the local telephone exchange switch 108 routing the call to telephone C in the second service provider network 112.
At step 2a, the user of telephone A dials a telephone number associated with telephone B to initiate a call to telephone B, which causes a call setup request to be sent into the PSTN 102 at step 2b. The call setup request contains a calling line identifier (CLI) (also referred to as a caller ID) for telephone A (denoted CLI: A) and a destination dialing number for telephone B (denoted DN: B). The call setup request traverses the PSTN 102 and is routed, at step 2c, to the local telephone exchange switch 108 in the first service provider network 104.
At step 2d, the local telephone exchange switch 108 attempts call setup to telephone B and determines that the multi-service user is unavailable at telephone B. In this case, the user of telephone B has subscribed to CLI services and the user of telephone A has not withheld their CLI when making the call, so the signaling message of step 2d contains a CLI for telephone A.
At steps 2e, 2f and 2g, the local telephone exchange switch 108 includes the originating CLI for the call (denoted CLI: A) and a destination dialing number for telephone C (denoted DN: C) in a call setup request and forwards the call setup request to telephone C, via the PSTN 102 and the one more local telephone exchange switches and/or gateways 116 in the second service provider network 112.
There are various telephony services that facilitate such call re-routing to telephone C. For example, a call forwarding (also called call divert) service can be implemented at the local telephone exchange switch 108 in the first service provider network 104 to redirect calls to the multi-service user at telephone B to telephone C. In some cases, all calls directed to telephone B can be forwarded to telephone C. In other cases, calls directed to telephone B can be forwarded to telephone C if a call to telephone B is not answered or if telephone B is being used when a call attempt to it is made.
After various call setup procedures that will be known to those skilled in the art, such as causing telephone C to generate a ringing tone to alert the multi-service user to the fact that an incoming call to it is being made and generating a ringback tone at telephone A to inform the calling party that telephone C is ringing, the multi-service user answers the incoming call at telephone C at step 2h and a telephony session is established between the calling party at telephone A and the multi-service user at telephone C (item 2i). Media data, such as voice or video data, can then flow between telephone A and telephone C via the PSTN 102 and the one more local telephone exchange switches and/or gateways 116 in the second service provider network 112 so that the calling party and the multi-service user can communicate with each other.
Although such telephony services enable the call to the multi-service user to be transferred to a more appropriate telephone, in this case telephone C, it may be desirable to provide additional telephony services to the multi-service user.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide improved and/or additional telephony services for multi-service users who have access to a plurality of telephony services.